Call for help: High-risk teenagers, mostly new immigrants, use swastikas, racial slurs to convey their emotions; draw pictures of wounded ultra-Orthodox man saying Hail Hitler and another calling for 'death to Jews.' Educators: Using Nazi symbols became most effective way of protest for them

The repeated cases of swastikas spray-painted in synagogues and in public places, which naturally caused a storm all around Israel, do not surprise education experts who work with new immigrant high-risk teens.

Nazi symbols and anti-Semite slurs have become the main and most effective means of protest against the injustice they feel they are subject to and against the trials related to their assimilation in Israeli society.

Lately educators witnessed another example of using Nazi symbols as means of protest.

A few days ago, at a final meeting of a seminar for treating new immigrant high-risk teens, counselors asked the teens, age 12-18, to sketch together a drawing on the subject "My Israel." They were flabbergasted by the results.

At the center of the drawing the teens drew a huge swastika with a Star of David next to it and wrote: "I have no other country," and "Hitler king of Israel." The drawing also depicted an ultra-Orthodox man hanging upside-down, a big wound in his stomach, uttering the words "Hail Hitler!" Another drawing showed an ultra-Orthodox man saying in English "I am a pig" and "Death to the Jews in Russian.

One of the senior counselors said that most of the teens come from broken or dysfunctional families, some have experienced abuse, and some even have police records for drug use and drug trafficking.

'Some think it's funny'

It is not the first time that he saw drawings with swastikas: "It's quite provocative, but it also contains deep, genuine anger. Israeli society must get over the shock and disdain and treat the teens," he said.

"These are kids who immigrated to Israel when they were between the ages of three and 10; they speak Hebrew but are still categorized as Russians by other students. Their parents work very hard and they have no time to spend with them, so the kids feel that no one in the education system really cares whether they study or what will become of them," said the counselor.

Counselors are convinced the defiance stems from alienation. The teens explained the reasons for continuing to draw swastikas despite the fact that some of them had relatives who perished in the Holocaust, and some teens even studied in Jewish schools before immigrating to Israel.

"I drew a swastika because for me the State of Israel is a Nazi State," explained one teen.

"This is the Jewish State, and semi-Jews or foreign kids have no place here. Our parents work hard and we live difficult lives, while ultra-Orthodox don't work and live well, and the natives live even better," he said.

"Some think it is funny," explained one counselor. "It's important to keep it in proportion, but still, it's very disturbing. These kids feel that no one needs them here. Some don't even remember Russia but keep saying 'We are Russians.' The solution is being attentive. Even professionals are stunned by these kinds of displays. Several months ago when we received similar drawings; we presented them to educators and psychologists who, simply put, became paralyzed."

Kids don't come up with this kind of idea without someone feeding it to them. I don't buy the idea that they are alienated because their parents are working. It strikes me as a symptom coming from the anti-religious hatred of the leftist secularists in Israel. I don't know if it's parents, teachers, the left-wing press, or what.

I have read that the ultra-Orthodox are exempt from military service, and draw government stipends for sitting around reading Torah all day. No wonder the secular Jews are pissed; I'd be too. Everyone should share the burden of the draft, and if someone wants to be a Talmudic scholar, he needs to get a rich father-in-law or a private foundation to support him.

The 1st generation immigrants have always a lot to overcome, in Israel or elsewhere.

I've noticed, however, some peculiarity with parts of Russian immigration. Adults exaggerate their status in the former homeland, they proclaim themselves well-known scientists if they ever worked in any State "Research" Institutes, or leaders of the industry if they ever moved to some managerial position no matter how insignificant it was. They are famous musicians if ever played a musical instrument in the local House of Culture, etc.

Having no profession that could be valuable, plus having little initiative and no language skills they are doomed to being on welfare and to the only activity available: feed each other those cockamamie stories, bitch about host country and pass their frustration to their kids.

A substantial portion of Aliyah from ex-Soviet states is composed of people with very tenuous (if any) links to Judaism or Jewish heritage.

They are the result of the Jewish Agency in the 1990's, in its desperation to stay in business bring immigrants to Israel, adopted the definition of who is Jewish "according to Hitler" rather than "according to Jewish law" and imported a huge mob of Russian anti-Semites to conteract the Arab anti-Semites.

If an immigrant cannot be loyal to their new country, then they should leave - or be forced to leave. This goes for Israel, as well as any countries which may lie between Canada and Mexico.

As for Israel being a Nazi state, I don't see any of them being rounded up at gunpoint, forced into cattle cars where there is no food and only a solitary bucket for waste, and then being brought to camps where most of them are gassed and cremated, and the rest are put to work in the most inhumane conditions imaginable. More than anything else, these kids need some education about what the Nazis were, who their present-day apprentices are, and in gratitude for what they've got and where they are. Clearly the Leftist and anti-religious publik skules in Israel are incapable of providing such instruction.

Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.